randomWalks

Va-voom poet Liz Belile headlines Gynomite, a reading series featuring “hard-core slut/dyke/whore/hussy/het/vamp PORN with an occasional political edge”.

originally posted by xowie

This Blackness may be used for making jokes about black people and/or laughing at black humor comfortably. This Blackness may be used for instilling fear. This Blackness may be used to augment the blackness of those already black, especially for purposes of playing 'blacker-than-thou'. The Seller does not recommend that this Blackness be used while seeking employment, shopping, or writing a personal check. The Seller does not recommend that this Blackness be used while voting in the United States or Florida. The Seller does not recommend that this Blackness be used in the process of making or selling 'serious' art.

csmonitor.com - One man’s trash is another’s gold. Dumpster diving: “like Christmas every day.”

Perseids tonight.

originally posted by xowie

"I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe -- I believe what I believe is right."

originally posted by xowie

The World Bank and the IMF said in a statement late yesterday that their annual meetings would be "consolidated" to two days -- the weekend of Sept. 29 and 30. That is a drastic reduction from the original schedule, under which the meetings would have begun a couple of days before that weekend and run through Oct. 3. Protesters had planned actions from Sept. 28 through Oct. 4.

Welcome to allmylifeforsale. Over the last six months I have gone through the process of listing everything I own on Ebay. Feel free to look around and sort through where all of my stuff has gone. The last item that I will list will be the domain name for allmylifeforsale on August 1st, 2001. When that is finally sold feel free to join me on my road-trip to visit all of my stuff.

Paint the Moon: It won’t work.

The more cuttings you accumulate, the more you will be tempted to offload them on your readers, like the celebrated Scottish leader writer who, returning late from a liquid lunch with a deadline to meet, clipeed the main leader from the Times, scrawled "What does the Times mean by this?" above it and sent it down to the printer. Packing the column with other people's quotes is the columnar equivalent of watering the milk. Assimilate the material and then discard it.
...
Having something to write about is not the same as having something to say.

In Thin Blue Lies: Police and the Art of Propaganda, Tim Wise drops a lesson on how the public is persuaded to accept racist policing. What are you afraid of?

Mind-blowing restored photos of the 1964/65 World’s Fair.

originally posted by xowie

A field guide to the L.A. River.

originally posted by xowie

I think I have said this before, but [ b r o o k l y n k i d ] is what New York looks like. Am I right?

Dangerous agitprop.

The game becomes a wild goose chase across the Net as you receive phone calls, faxes, e-mails and instant messages from a variety of Anim-X staffers and mysterious informers, directing you to research any number of strange alien conspiracies and nefarious government activities.

People who don't live here can't understand our realities. You take a couple in Europe or in the United States. They have one or two children, and they can't understand why people traffic in children. But when you live here, you understand right away.

But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer was adamant today when asked whether the president would ask Americans to stop using so much energy. "That's a big 'no,'" Fleischer said. "The president believes that it's an American way of life, that it should be the goal of policy-makers to protect the American way of life. The American way of life is a blessed one." The president, he said, considers Americans' heavy use of energy a "reflection of the strength of our economy, of the way of life that the American people have come to enjoy."

Huge numbers of same-sex couples were counted in Census 2000.

originally posted by xowie

Controversial Black Panther t-shirts.

originally posted by xowie

The lower leaves of the trees
Tangle the sunset in dusk.
Awe spreads with
The summer twilight.

originally posted by xowie

Jack, or "Ti Jean" ("Little John"), as he was known, was born on March 12, 1922, at 9 Lupine Road, in the upstairs apartment of a shabby duplex building in a Lowell slum called Centralville. He was delivered at home by Dr. Victor Rochette, whom Kerouac later described as a lonely, desolate man, unwanted and unloved. According to a neighbor, Reginald Ouellette, Dr. Rochette's wife had died in childbirth and he'd never remarried, which struck Jack, who grew up in a close-knit family that spoiled him, as tragic. In a December 28, 1950, letter to Cassady, Kerouac disclosed that his birth occurred at 5 P.M. and that Gabrielle later gave him a blow-by-blow account of his delivery. As Jack was born, his mother could hear Pawtucket Falls a mile away, crashing into the Merrimack River, heavy with spring-thaw snow and ice. Her lurid description of the way he was forcibly dragged from her body, and then yelled at and spanked into life, led to his belief that birth was the beginning of the tragedy of consciousness, the dance of life that ends in death. The processes of nature, which most writers extol as symbols of renewal and eternal life, were always seen darkly by Kerouac.

The Washington Monthly - Canada’s Burning: Media myths about universal health coverage

I don’t fully understand the ‘design anarchy’ issue of Adbusters, but the stories are awful nice to look at.

originally posted by xowie

Lots of good reads in the Washington Post lately:

• The Long Haul - on trucking, from the Magazine
• What Exit? - in anticipation of the beloved New Jersey Turnpike's 50th.
• The Walken Shtick, Creepy ... and Cool - Christopher Walken
• Driving the Appalachian Trail - in case I don't get around to walking the trail myself.

I've been careful to teach my daughter critical thinking in my one-woman "mind over media" campaign. It started with fairytales: "What's make-believe?" and "How would you like to stay home and cook for all those dwarves?" Later we moved on to the news: "Why was it presented in this way?" and "What's a stereotype?" But if you think I was reading "Winnie the Pooh" to my toddler when I thought up these questions, think again. I was relaxing with a cup of coffee and a book on feminist theory while Maia was riveted to PBS.